Hello and welcome back to my blog!
Venturing into the second term of our ASTU class, we continue to expand upon similar themes we have previously touched upon. In the previous term, we had the opportunity to explore a variety of historical events through the use of different genres. Authors bring these stories to light and depict them with a sensitivity that is not apparent in historical texts or reports. This life that is added to these stories makes them both impactful and thought provoking. The story that we are currently focusing on is Safe Area Goraže by journalist Joe Sacco – which tells the tale of the Bosnian War (lasting from 1992-1995). As previously seen with Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi) and Obasan (Joy Kogawa), we once again get to understand and learn difficult tales through personal recollections. Once hearing and reading about these stories, you cannot help but feel invested and connected with the characters.
Through graphic narratives such as Safe Area and Persepolis, we are able to see authors abilities to adapt and mould genres to best tell their stories. Both of the graphic narratives use drawings to connect history to real people. Where these two stories diverge is the fact that Safe Area is drawn in an extremely grotesque and detailed manner, something that was absent from Persepolis. Multiple times I found myself being highly disturbed by the drawings, even when we were left having to use our imagination.
Prior to reading the book, I had a small understanding of the events that occurred during the Bosnian war, but not enough to say I was incredibly familiar with it. I owe this knowledge to an incredibly moving and impactful movie I saw last spring break. During my short trip and vacation in Turkey, I watched the movie My Mothers Wound, directed by Ozan Açiktan, in theatres. This movie told the story of a young orphan searching for his birth mother, and ultimately: the truth. The connection to our in-class material lies with the fact that the story rooted around the events of the Bosnian war. The deep depiction of the long-term effects of ethnic cleansing are brought to life through this young boy’s search for his mother, and it allows us to understand this concept in a more graphic way. Throughout the movie we get snapshots of the war and the effects it still has on Bosnian citizens today. What was extremely gripping about this movie was its depiction of the atrocities committed against women during the war, which is shown in vivid detail. This movie went on to be shown all around Europe and also won the Audience Award during the Austin Film Festival in 2016 – bringing deep attention to this sometimes forgotten war.
This theme of ethnic cleansing has been a topic we have visited many times throughout this course, and continues to bewilder me. It is devastating that people continue to be discriminated against, simply due to heritage or religion. How is it that we still have yet to learn how to co-exist peacefully? The reality is, ethnic cleansing has occurred throughout generations and has affected millions around the globe. I vividly remember my grandmother telling me the story of how during her childhood, due to ethnic cleansing in Bulgaria, her family was forced to flee and eventually escaped by train to Turkey, with only one large wooden trunk in tow. This event is very important in my family as it is something my grandmother still mentions today. In fact, we still have that one incredibly old and large trunk in our family home. Events such as this change the lives and pathways of individuals, and as exemplified within Safe Area, they’re lives are almost put on “hold”. When your living through instability, you cannot think or plan for the future. You cannot imagine or organize your days, because you are simply trying to survive.
Sacco does an excellent job of connecting and highlighting different perspectives within the story. He was able to tie in the perspectives of Serbians as well as Muslims, and represent the various difficulties and complexities associated with warfare. What question comes to my mind when considering these different perspectives, is when will we start to see beyond peoples ethnic and racial identities and realize that we are all simply human? This genocide sheds light on how quickly people can turn on one-another, exemplified in a community that was once so interconnected and implicated in each-other’s lives. The friendships and connections are quickly forgotten, as people cling to their nationalistic beliefs instead of working together to create a stronger and more inclusive community. As mentioned in the book, many believed that the only way to win and combat this war was through bonding together, but this was quickly forgotten when the fighting began. Sacco sheds light on the disparities and conflictions of the regular citizens, and they’re positions that begin to blur. Despite individual’s beliefs, they are sometimes thrusted into these situations, without want or even an understanding of why.
What is the most surprising element of this war was the way the world stood back and simply watched the events unroll. The depiction of the international community within the book is incredibly telling. Sacco is perhaps making the point that the international community only becomes involved when it is too late, as seen with the Syrian refugee crisis. As the world becomes ever-more interconnected and complex, how secure can one feel? No one is longer safe or sheltered anymore, and our generation has learned to live with this constant fear. As we move into a new year, I hope the world will gain more compassion and understanding for each other, and we can begin to stop viewing people in terms of their ethnicities but simply as people.
